“For Pete’s Sake,” a benefit for Knuckleheads sound guy, takes place this Saturday and Sunday

When I ask Frank Hicks, the owner of Knuckleheads, how long his faithful sound guy Pete Saiger has been working at the venue, Hicks laughs over the phone.

“Well, that’s a good question,” he says. “I don’t know for a fact. He’s been there almost since Day One. I think probably started somewhere around 2002 or 2003.”

Local artists and Knuckleheads regulars – along with a hefty list of national acts that routinely play the venue – know Saiger well. Last October, Saiger went to the hospital for a hernia, and throughout the treatment, doctors discovered that he had signet ring cell cancer, a rare form of cancer that occurs most often in the stomach lining – and for which the survival rate is very low.

Hicks explained how even though Saiger had surgery to combat the cancer in November – where doctors removed over 200 tumors from his stomach – and despite Saiger’s battery of chemotherapy in the months since, his prognosis is grim.

“He looks pretty good and he’s lost a lot of weight, about 75 pounds, but the doctor said something to him the other day that was really depressing,” Hicks says. “Pete wanted to visit his family up in Chicago and asked the doctor if he should find someone up there to continue the chemo while he was gone – it would be two or three weeks. And the doctor basically told him, ‘Well, it doesn’t matter, you’re gonna die anyway.’ And Pete came into work that day and he’d lost all hope. He had such good spirits about it until then.”

So Hicks has arranged a benefit for his stalwart soundman – aptly titled “For Pete’s Sake” – to take place over this Saturday, April 26, and Sunday, April 27. When I asked Hicks what he hopes to achieve with the benefit, his answer was surprising.

“This may sound funny to you, but I’m hoping to get enough money for Pete to go and enjoy himself,” Hicks says. “I don’t care about the doctor bills. I want him to go on a month cruise or something. I told him, ‘I don’t know if this is gonna be the last days of your life, nobody knows that, but go do the things you’ve been wanting to do all your life.’ That’s what I’m hoping, just get him enough money to pay his rent for a long time, and then go and enjoy himself and do things he wants to do.”

The weekend’s lineup is extensive, with sets from 18 acts over both days. The artists on the roster are mostly local favorites (Trampled Under Foot, the Nace Brothers, the Belairs), and Paul Thorn is also flying in especially for the benefit. All the artists are performing for free.

“All these artists have donated a lot of their time and love for Pete,” Hicks says. “Every time these bands have played there, Pete’s the one who runs sound for them. And Pete’s more than an employee. He’s a really good friend.” 

For ticket information and the full lineup, go here. For the Pete’s Sake online auction, go here.